Carli The Quilter

My journey in quilt making is always a joy to do. Sometimes, its challenging when a needle breaks, but all in all its a great way to record a family's history in one or more quilts for snuggling under and remembering that family good times. It starts with someone reaching out to me. Its a difficult thing for someone to do. Its brings a flood of memories  back to them.  Making a memory quilt is not a transaction. Its honor, repect and gentleness. I've been usually given the briefest of information about how it should look when finished. Most people are just happy that someone will take care of their loved ones clothing in an artistic way. Working with clothing is where I started sewing back among the whispering aspens as a child. I lived quite remote, my family took care of farms and we lived at one of those farms for part of my childhood. Remote living isn't for everyone and I excelled at being alone in the woods, fishing with a pole and learning how to embroider as a means...

This is the beginning of a new needle case for a friend. Life is getting busier somehow. Semi retirement has not been as relaxed, dreamy tea sipping and reading kind of time. Am I the only one that thinks the whole darn world is going faster somehow? I did find some time to visit Moss Street Market in Victoria and I was really surprised with the turn out! Thousands of people attending, and it was so hot, thank goodness we caught occassional gusts of ocean breezes. I've been culling out my stash and hoping for inspiration and it will come, just not recently! I laugh at how silly I am, keeping all sorts of bits and bobs and they are gone now, onto others who will find inspiration in them. I kept only what really is my favorite stuff. You'd be surprised when you ask yourself  "does this bring me joy" if it does, then I keep it. But if I am being completely honest, it has to go. This is a new piece that works into the forest fires of BC again are going strong and many peo...

We are helping to tidy up my father in law's home and get him settled into a new home. Its tough, not easy to deal with and we are trying our best to hold down all that we have going on. But thank you for all the kind comments on my spring posts, its been kinda dismal in terms of my stitching, nothing really new, just a bunch of little pages for my weight loss journal. The following pages are some of what I've been mindlessly stitching out the stress of these times. Rusty is aging fast and this is a common view of Rusty whenever we find a shady spot to sit and watch the waves come in. She is 14.5 yrs old this year. We are taking time in small bites to reset our extra busy-ness this summer, elder care and a wedding, its way too busy. Happy quilting everyone. Carli  

I often get an idea at bedtime. Well, mostly I try hard to tell myself to remember it, but rarely do. I've been practicing getting out of bed and write it down, but then I'd have to disturb my sweetie and that's not a good idea at bedtime. So basically, I rely on my memory. But recently a friend texted to ask if I was interested in a bag of fabric scraps. Well, at first I tried not to think about it and her offer to drop it off at my house. Weeks went by as they do in the COVID19 fog as it is, and she texted again, 'Its at the house, front porch, can you pick it up?' So my hubby and I took our dog to the park for a good gander around and on the way home, we stopped, my hubby got out and immediately whined it was heavy. And it was. But you know when see the beautiful silk, raw silk too, linen, viscose and rayon scraps I was in love. And this little piece came to my mind right away and so I did go ahead and make it and look. What do you think? I was only in love with ...

I am experimenting and not just with one thing, but many in my pursuit of the continued love of stitching. This is based on a photo sent by my friends Todd and Charrine Lace of @charrinelace and upon deciding on how to go forward with creating my first ever stitched art like this became a new adventure and more is coming along on that vein. His portrait went into the Town of Smithers Centennial Quilt 2013, which has now come back to me for safe keeping. What are you trying out? I've found a lovely and simple, thank goodness for me knitted and then felted slipper pattern. I found it online, but can't find it again to share it, but its out there.

Hi and welcome to my blog! If you want to start right now making a crazy quilt block use my tutorial link below. Crazy Quilt Piecing Tutorial No planning or real decisions should go into making a crazy quilt block. This is of course my opinion and each one of us makes different choices along the way, I just plunk down prints or plain fabric scraps that appeal to me, onto any sized foundation fabric and I get busy. Its important to have less bulk when machine embroiderying or using a regular sewing machine to do some fancy stitches along the seams. Once your original crazy pieced block is finished to your liking, then I pull fabrics to place around the block to proceed with finishing. At this point its just like you are finishing a regular quilt block or top. I usually try to make the border big enough that the center block is nicely framed. This alternate color print is too much for this block, it loses its loveliness in the busy print as seen be...

When I began to write this progress report on my "365 Circles" that began so long ago I suddenly realized that circles have been a huge part of everyday life. Bowls to holes and all in between circles are the way life goes, in a circle! This lovely table runner went to a local charity raising funds in an auction. Three Dresden Plate Fans made into this Modern Dresden Table Runner I made this upcycled bath mat way back into the 1990's and have not looked back on the upcycling front. This fire ball was an exercise in exploring Ms. Carlson book. Quilting hoops around my house are a constant distraction for my family as pins and needles managed to escape and no one drew any blood in this exercise. When you begin a project I don't usually have a plan, to be completely honest. I just usually start with some sort of vision in my head and if I don't get it onto paper soon, it goes by the way of the Do Do Bird. I have...

People are meant to share things and information. I think the most part some good educational information is my page Crazy Quilt Tutorial. I'm working on a new updated version of my Crazy Quilting Tutorial. I wrote a post on some of the various projects completed with upcycled cloth for clothing,bedding, sweaters etc back here and many of you may have tried to upcycle things around your home. Keep doing it. Hence, jeans to the rescue.  This article is a Canadian report on our wastefulness. We Canadians are just has bad as many countries with not being thoughful about what we buy and how soon we discard it. Mostly we seem to throw good clothing away into the landfill. Does this sound familiar?  I can't remember a time when I did not reuse or recycle into something completely different. I rarely discard items with life left in it. Not that I think I'm perfect, if something is beyond a good washing, then for sure, it goes into the garbage bin. But if you can...